Completion rates decline again
On July 5th the National Centre for Vocational Education Research published their report documenting a snapshot of the apprentice and trainee situation across Australia. Their report tracked data for trainees and apprentices commencing their training on or before 2013 and compared with data for those who commenced on or before 2012 and the findings were quite surprising.
Across industries the study found that completion rates fell by 2.7% compared to the previous year. Contract completion rates for trade specific training fell by 1.4% from the previous year while non-trade related completion rates fell by 1.7%.
While those rates may not appear to be much of a change, it is a further decline that shows almost 1 in 2 trainees and apprentices will go on to complete their training to go into a career. New South Wales is ahead of the national averages in non-trade specific training with a 59.5% completion rate while trade specific is behind the national average with only 46.3% of those who started training in 2013 to complete. What trades stood out? Engineering, electrotechnology and automotive trade related training showed the highest completion rates across the board.
While it shows that nearly 1 in every 2 trainees or apprentices will complete their training, what does it mean for employers? Businesses offer apprenticeships and traineeships with the goal of cultivating skilled employees that support their business. No business wants to bring someone in just to train them up for a competitor. They bring in an apprentice or trainee, spend time and effort moulding them into the employee they need them to be and on average only one in two make it through. It’s a severe loss of a businesses invested time and effort in their trainee or apprentice.
The key to success with any traineeship and apprenticeship will be properly vetting the candidates and working closely with students as they progress. Cancellation/withdraw rates are high, with 29.1% of trainees and apprentices pulling the plug within the first year of their training. While individual circumstances vary, the key factors are: students come in with a misconception of the job ahead or are not entirely certain what career they wish to pursue; or that students fail to receive the help and support juggling their studies with work and simply give up. Proper recruitment and management of the trainees and apprentices progress is a critical key to their success and not to be overlooked.
We strive to help employers retain their skilled employees and help trainees and apprentices get into the careers they always wanted. If you’ve had trouble locating or keeping trainees or apprentices maybe it’s time you give GetSet a call and let us show you how we can help.
